A Little Bit of Paradise

Andrzej Cichocki beautifully captures details of the everyday life of a family living in the region of Silesia, on the outskirts of a city. In this remote corner of the world, the children roam freely in the nature around them, with the factory chimneys looming in the background. Everything is a playground in their eyes, from the surrounding landscape to a cluttered yard full of building scraps and buckets. Here the father slaughters a goose while the children watch, giggling girls dip their hair into buckets full of water, and with Polish flags painted on their cheeks, they together watch the Polish soccer team play a match. Handheld camerawork evokes the energy of a busy family working hard to make ends meet, but also having great fun together. These shots are interspersed with calm, sophisticated compositions, the tired mother gazing out the window or the youngest child watching his father singeing the stubble off the goose over a flame. Cichocki doesn’t romanticize the poverty, but shows how the family’s world is inextricably linked with the nature around them. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)